Thurston keeps Warriors at bay

The Warriors stayed within reach of the Cowboys at Mt Smart until the last ten minutes this afternoon, three late tries blowing the score out to 34-12.

Johnathan Thurston once more demonstrated why he is frequently labeled the world's best player, leading the stats in both attack and defence and orchestrating the Cowboys' 5th win this season.

The Warriors, sporting freshly shaved heads in honour of Jesse Royal's son, opened the scoring in the 4th minute with a penalty goal. Four minutes later O'Donnell was in for the day's first try and from that point on the lead stayed with the Cowboys.

Thurston struggled with his kicking game at times in the first half, having to contend with a stiff Auckland breeze. He had no problems running however and side-stepped his way to a try in the 30th minute. The score remained 10-2 going into halftime.

During the break the rain appeared at Mt Smart and it stayed for the rest of the match. This was expected to work in the Warriors' favour and indeed it appeared to be when Nathan Fien closed the gap to two points in the 46th minute. Five minutes later though it was 16-8, Tonga picking up a fortuitous try from a rebounded Thurston grubber.

Referee Cummins followed through on his threats to sin-bin, sending James Tamou away for not getting out of the ruck fast enough in the 57th minute. The Warriors only took four points from their one man advantage however, Kemp making it 16-12 going into the last quarter.

The Cowboys confidence jumped and they cemented their victory with three tries in five minutes. Graham, Farrar and Bowen added their names to the scorecard and Thurston, showing off, converted all three to make the final score 34-12.

Next week the Warriors head to Canberra while the Cowboys will host the Knights on Monday night.